kaomoji

[ kou-moh-jee ]

noun,plural kao·mo·ji, kao·mo·jis.
  1. Digital Technology. a Japanese-style emoticon that uses Japanese characters, Latin letters, and punctuation marks in combination to represent a facial expression that conveys an emotion. Unlike emoticons used by English speakers that depict the face horizontally, kaomoji are vertical depictions of faces, as (^.^) smiling eyes, (^_~) a winking eye, (>.<;) a bead of sweat, or sometimes include depiction of arms, as if raised in celebration \ ^^ /.

Origin of kaomoji

1
First recorded in 1985–90; from Japanese kao “face” + moji “(written) character”; cf. emoji

Words Nearby kaomoji

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023